When the right answer was an off-the-shelf tool
The Nest is a full-service creative agency running many client projects at once with a distributed team. They needed one place for project visibility, client communication, and files.
The situation
Project tracking, client conversations, and files each lived in a different place, which is common for an agency with a distributed team and many projects running at once. The Nest wanted one shared view of who was working on what.
What we built
- A multi-role Softr portal with team and client views, on a restructured Airtable backend.
- Templated task infrastructure and automations, a support-request workflow, and an integration plan for QuickBooks, Toggl, and Zapier.
- A training guide, video walkthroughs, and live training sessions.
What changed
After testing and training, The Nest decided that the team needed to reorganize work faster than a custom portal allowed, and chose to move day-to-day execution to Asana. We agreed with that assessment. Airtable stayed as the system of record, and the portal was archived with no dependency left behind. The agency ended up with the tool that fit its work, and its founder has since referred new clients to us.
Sometimes the most useful thing a systems consultant can do is agree that the thing we built is not the thing you should use.
Related case studies.
Leaving a fiscal sponsor without breaking the organization
A community arts organization was preparing to leave its fiscal sponsor. We modeled what independence would cost, built the project tracker, and ran the vendor process.
A map of 280 shows, built in under a week
At a festival with more than 3,500 shows and no way to find the queer ones, we built a free interactive map and planner. It reached 1,100 visitors in its first week.
A clear offer, a real price, and a plan that fits a traveling practice
Four Clarity Sessions, part-funded by a Center for Cultural Innovation grant, produced a prioritized offerings menu with pricing, a website architecture plan, a six-month roadmap, and print collateral.
Want this kind of clarity for your organization?
Book a free 30-minute call. Tell us what's happening, and we'll tell you where we would start.